yes...really in Japan

This sign may seem normal at first until further inspection reveals that yes...that is an arrow pointing to the "Rice Terrace". Do we have those in the sates!?! Haha. So this is at the home of Minoru Murayama, a friend of David's family. I think he must have watched too many John Wayne movies as a child and now he's finally living out his dream of having a ranch with horses. It's pretty amazing actually driving past rice field after rice field and then ending up at this gorgeous house with horses, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, and rabbits. He's got american license plates nailed all over his fences. He admits to stealing them off cars in the states with no shame at all, "I'm Japanese, nobody said anything to me"...haha, he's so funny. His english is good enough to carry on a decent conversation with minimal confusion. I wandered around his barn searching for "Japan", but literally could not find it...it was quite American for sure! Anyway, we spent a bit of the afternoon there taking photos and talkin to him about shooting a scene of one of the music videos there. Oh, another funny thing about his place is that it is so pretty and unique the Japanese people come there and just walk into his yard and start taking photos with the horses. He said that they even go as far as to spread out a blanket and start eating on his front yard!

When we got home I went for a walk around the neighborhood with David's cousin Amelia that just arrived here yesterday for a week.It was getting towards the end of the sunlight and we ran across the sweetest little old woman named Matsumoto San (Mrs. Matsumoto) sitting on the side of the road waiting for a ride apparently. An old man showed up in his truck...and they just wanted to chat for a while...which was super fun since there was no language cohesiveness happening between us. Oh well, they were great and to recognize this woman and I'll show her beauty to the world (or at least to you). I just had a strange realization...I wonder if at any point in her mind today as I was taking photos of her did she wonder who would see the photo? Did she have any clue that it would be posted on the internet where anyone in the world..if desired...could see her face? I wonder if anyone has ever posted a photo of me somewhere...Yay for midnight musings!

Here is the fish

courtesy of David Neptune....me, koji and my fish

Inside BBQ....gotta get one!

I went to dinner at a 200 year old Japanese home with a BBQ in the floor where we cooked beef and chicken and rice balls, and it was amazing! We all sat on the floor around the BBQ pit in the floor and ate like kings. The host drank a bit and by the end of the night had become quite entertaining, especially since he spoke English rather well! "David is a hard working.........worker", was my favorite quote of his from the night. Although a close second was "Have you seen my gallely?" (refering to his art gallery). And the last one, "Anyway.....what were we talking about?.........Jesus.........Yes, Jesus drunk two glasses of wine....." Haha, he was hilarious and his wife was just as entertaining, although completely sober. I really need to learn Japanese because so far everybody that I've met here is so fun...I just can't quite communicate. Oh well, it's fun anyway!

This afternoon David and his friend Koji and I went fishing at a small lake near the house here. I caught two decent size bass, and David caught one. It was pretty fun and an absolutely beautiful afternoon at the lake! Chalk it up in the books as another amazing day in Japan!